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Ulderica Da Pozzo is Friuli. She has been a photographer for a lifetime, especially of the mountain and the people of the peaks. She lives with them and portrays them for us who do not understand the fatigue of that life. The documentary film Ulderica Da Pozza, frute di mont, produced by the Friulian company Agherose (www.agherose.com), was presented at the Pordenone Docs Fest, with the support of the Audiovisual Fund of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the patronage of ARLeF, the Regional Agency for the Friulian Language.
A love called Carnia
Ulderica is a fruta, that is, in the Friulian language, a little girl, from the Latin fructum, as if each of us were the fruit of a love, of a story. Ulderica is the fruit of love for the mountains of Carnia, for the remote and peaceful villages. With a poetic and curious vein, the director Stefano Giacomuzzi follows her in her wanderings among hills and peaks, between houses and woods and Ulderica confesses: «I was a courageous child and also scared of death». The eternal fear of losing those you love. And so begins his search to overcome that fear and, from death, life comes thanks to photography: the search for places of the heart, sunny valleys or immersed in the snow, and people, like Odino Piazza who tells his story. And she talks about Friuli: this docufilm is a hymn to the high lands, to the carved faces of those who resist and breathe life, to the desolation of places that bring peace. Like on a foggy morning or under a heavy snowfall or in the open spaces of a mountain hut.
With photography beyond fear
Ulderica Da Pozzo has made Friuli her only source of inspiration, with books that are historical heritage Malghe e malgari (2004), We ride for this side dish (2007), Between sea and land (2008), The voices of water ( 2010), Fires. Youth and rituals in Alta Carnia (2010), Ragazzi del ’99 1899-1999. Photographic portraits from Carnia (2019) and the mountain sings also through her Instagram profile (@ulderica_da_pozzo_fotografa) which is images and lots of daily poetry. Ulderica sings about Friuli: «I like to spy on the passing clouds and I feel like a fearless fruit, a mountain girl. And we who look at this land and the spirit of the peaks through her eyes feel happy (or, at least, less afraid).
The documentary will be visible from October on the MyCulture streaming platform, dedicated to audiovisual production in minority languages.